Decided I'd share some thoughts on my mains in this mode after ~15 hours of total playtime. If there's anything anyone would like to add or make counterpoints to, feel free!
I find his main strengths and weaknesses to be amplified twofold in this mode. He can be combo'd to death even more easily, but arguably has broken matchups against heavies, particularly Ganon (for those wondering, see my post above). Overall, I really like him in both modes, but would give the edge to SLHG Dedede due to stronger combo potential - which, for anyone who mains or plays a lot against Dedede, is a very scary thing.
Like his Vanilla counterpart, he is very, very good in this mode. He definitely has some neat stuff in SLHG, like auto-canceled nair into strong hit utilt, and uair seems to land in many more instances, but he also has the issue many other characters have in this mode in that he struggles more offstage - both offensively and defensively (uairing from the ledge, for example, will kill you). Some Ike mains may not mind it as much, but because it's more of a struggle than I'm comfortable with, I prefer Vanilla Ike overall. SLHG Ike definitely has a stronger neutral/onstage game, though, and he's still a ton of fun.
One of my two mains whom I feel is objectively better in this mode; he loses a few tricks from Vanilla, but in place of them gains several more reliable, stronger, and overall better options. His only real downsides are a slightly worse recovery and having to be a bit more cautious offstage because of that (you can't whiff a below-stage counter or you'll SD). Other than that, though, he feels so, so much better in this mode, and is one of my favorites to combo with, as he has an actual juggle game here.
Like Marth, she seems objectively better in this mode. Jab locks, tilt into fair/bair true combos, excellent short hops, improved fast fall, and all-around crisper movement make for a Zelda you can play much more offensively with while still being able to go on the defensive if need-be. Her only real loss is that up-B no longer reliably combos into itself (as far as I know), but I'd rarely used it as a KO move to begin with, and in place of it she has much better, safer options.
I'm not sure what it is, but something feels very off about her in this mode. Her combos feel more difficult to pull off, and her vertically is nerfed, both recovery and attack-wise. This results in a significantly less aggressive ZSS for me personally, and, as an aggressive player, makes me prefer her in Vanilla.
I don't want to talk about her. I've tried to use her. Every freaking time, I've tried. And every freaking time, the experience further cements my thoughts that she is awful in this mode. Yes, she's OK on-stage, and her rapid jab is even better in this mode, but almost everything good about her is ruined because her recovery is god awful. It may not look THAT bad for those watching, but Robin mains likely understand just how much it ruins her offstage game. Try to guard your recovery with arcfire? You SD. Try to dair someone offstage? You SD. Try to go moderately deep with any of her moves? You SD. Try to go even a smidge below the stage with any of her aerials? You SD. It's just so frustrating because nearly all of her offensive and defensive offstage tools are made useless in this mode, and the ones that can still work require perfect timing to have a chance at recovering from. Oh, and her uair isn't as strong, which makes it a significantly less reliable KO move.
While he definitely has more combos in this mode, I actually prefer him in Vanilla because you can be a lot more aggressive with him offstage. In fact, you can do things in Vanilla that are impossible to do without SDing in SLHG, such as drop-down fast-fall bair (you hit the blast zone before bair's endlag is finished in SLHG). His most powerful combo, uair into up-B, also takes longer to KO with. Overall, I don't think what he gains is worth what he loses, but he's still a lot of fun to use.
All-in-all, it's definitely a more fun mode to me than vanilla, though vanilla will continue to have a place for me due to the fact that I still prefer half my mains in it.
Sadly don't think it'll ever catch on competitively on a large scale due to two arguably minor problems that'll be blown way out of proportion if the mode ever tries to gain real traction: 1) The time and effort it'll take to "relearn" the game, and 2) the fact that a few characters lost a lot of viability in this mode due to wonky recovery, which would likely cause quite a few mains of them to resent this mode.
There's also the "problem" of having to set up, though we've already been given confirmation that's a non-issue.
Still, I'm interested to see what becomes of this mode (if anything) in the future, and I certainly wouldn't mind being proven wrong in my prediction.
